The 32-year-old Smollett is best known
for his portrayal of musician Jamal Lyon on the Fox drama Empire.

Smollett warned against viewing AIDS as
an issue from “yesteryear” and encouraged people to know their
status.

“That's the problem with our
generation as a whole that I want to really help change, is the idea
that something is [from] yesteryear,” he said. “We get attached
to these hashtags and it becomes this social media fad. But it's
almost as if HIV/AIDS stopped being the thing to talk about before
social media came around. We've gotta bring that back because we're
not done.”

"People are still being infected
at huge rates. We have to remember that it's not a death sentence.
You can live with it and you can live a beautiful, wonderful life
with it.”

“But it's also something that we can
prevent. So for that, getting tested, knowing your status, being
responsible for yourself and other people is so important – being
honest with yourself, number one, so you can be honest with everyone
else,” Smollett
added.